Top Taste Restaurant is a family-run contemporary Asian restaurant at 1 Hagley Street, Porirua, serving what it calls Porirua's number one choice in Asian cuisine. The business traces back to 1993, when the family ran a BBQ Roast Duck and Roast Pork stall inside the now-closed Uncle Chang's Asian Supermarket on Chaffers Street, before opening Top Taste itself in 2001 in a former restaurant called The Golden Dragon. In 2007 the restaurant moved to its current building, previously known locally as 'the old Baby Factory' and, before that, 'the old Porirua Cinemas.'
The kitchen prepares food on site using fresh, locally sourced ingredients, with a small team of chefs cooking almost everything in-house, supplementing with a few outsourced products from Wellington City. In December 2025, Tani — who grew up working in the family business, studied Business at Massey University, French Cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu NZ, and trained with celebrity chefs Forest Leong and Sam Leong in Singapore — took over running the restaurant day-to-day from her parents.
Beyond dine-in, Top Taste offers takeaway from a large blackboard menu made fresh to order, phone orders, and delivery through DeliverEasy. For groups, the restaurant offers three set banquet menus plus a mains-only option, and gift vouchers are available for purchase in $30, $50 and $100 denominations.
On Hagley Street in Porirua, Top Taste Restaurant carries forward a family story that started long before the restaurant itself existed. Back in 1992–1993, the family ran a BBQ Roast Duck and Roast Pork stall inside the now-long-gone Uncle Chang's Asian Supermarket on Chaffers Street, where the founder honed the Cantonese roast meats still served every Chinese New Year and Mid-Autumn Lunar Festival.
In 2001, the family took a bigger leap, purchasing an existing Chinese restaurant in Porirua called The Golden Dragon, renaming it Top Taste, and giving it a full refresh with new paint, art, furniture and equipment. In 2007, the restaurant relocated around the corner to a larger space with its own layered local history — known in the 1990s as 'the old Baby Factory,' and before that, in the 1950s, as 'the old Porirua Cinemas.' The move brought a new kitchen, new bathrooms and a new dining room, setting up the restaurant for its next chapter.
Tani, who now runs Top Taste day-to-day, grew up in the restaurant alongside her older brother Deon, starting out serving customers at the takeaway counter before moving onto the restaurant floor. After high school, she stayed in Wellington to build a career around the family business — studying Business at Massey University, training in French Cuisine at Le Cordon Bleu NZ, and travelling to Singapore in 2015 to study under celebrity chef and cooking teacher Forest Leong and Sam Leong. In December 2025, she formally took over running the restaurant from her parents, continuing a business they started together in 2001.
The COVID-19 pandemic hit the restaurant hard, with dine-in revenue taking a significant loss. During that period, Tani and her parents personally delivered meals to local households, and once dine-in resumed, socially distanced tables kept the environment safe. Takeaway demand stayed strong throughout, allowing the restaurant to keep its full staff employed. In November 2020, Top Taste joined the launch of DeliverEasy in Porirua, adding screen-to-door delivery to its takeaway options.
Top Taste's everyday menu covers starters and soups, sizzling dishes and meat, poultry and seafood, rice and noodles, vegetarian options, and dessert and drinks, prepared fresh in-house using locally sourced ingredients. For groups, the restaurant offers set banquet menus — Set A, Set B, and Set C — plus a mains-only option for larger parties, each covering everything from entrées and soup through to shared mains and dessert, designed to take the stress out of ordering for a big table.
Top Taste runs a 3 for 2 Thursday promotion, where dine-in guests purchasing two mains get a third free (excluding duck and blue cod, and not valid in December or on public holidays). SuperGold card holders also get 5% off dinner menu items on Tuesdays, and the restaurant features in the Gold Card section of the Wellington Entertainment Book, excluding major holidays like Valentine's Day, Mother's Day and Father's Day. Gift vouchers are also available in $30, $50 and $100 denominations for anyone wanting to gift a Top Taste dining experience.
Top Taste is open six nights a week, with lunch service Wednesday to Friday and Saturday lunch available by appointment only. The kitchen runs until 8:30pm daily unless the restaurant chooses to close earlier, and the business is closed on public holidays.
For Porirua locals and visitors looking for a family-run Asian restaurant with real history behind it — and a menu that spans everyday dining through to proper banquet spreads for celebrations — Top Taste offers over two decades of consistency under the same family's care.